Do they automatically become smilies on any board if you put the right collection of dots and dashes? Or are they specific to each board?

You had to copy/paste the specific code for each smilie, like inserting any image into a post. If Padge still has them up online, it'd be fun to use them again. He might have to create a couple more, as I think they pre-dated Catalans and Widnes appearance in SL.

Between the optimist & the pessimist
The difference is quite droll:
The optimist sees the doughnut,
The pessimist sees the hole.